


It's Emiya!

by obeyingthemuse



Series: Who's That Servant? [1]
Category: Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: (so far) - Freeform, ??? - Freeform, Crack, Gen, Shirou-centric, Sporadic Updates, Why have I done this to myself, slice-of-life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 11:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14471751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/obeyingthemuse/pseuds/obeyingthemuse
Summary: Sometimes, Rin gets the Saber she's wanted. Sometimes, Shirou summons Counter Guardian Emiya.





	It's Emiya!

**Author's Note:**

> Why am I posting a new fic and not updating AUP? Because I'm a fickle person, or more accurately, I actually write tons of AUs for tons of fandoms simultaneously, but only a few tolerable fics are actually published. That said, the "Who's That Servant?" series isn't as polished as AUP but -- so I've been told -- fine for others to read regardless. Please be gentle.

Shirou fell backwards through the doors of the warehouse and weakly spasmed with the aggravation of his chest wound from the physical repercussions of his hasty move. He didn’t notice when his feet tangled, but he was lying on the ground propped up by his elbows before he knew it with a burning in his hand and a flash of red aiming for his heart. Fear burned through his nerves like acid. Death was seeking him for a third time. 

This was what it meant to be Emiya Shirou:

Ten years ago, a fire had burned away his childhood, his family name, his very self. As a veritable newborn, young Shirou had wandered without direction as the fire had filled him with ash and grief instead of a character or a soul; indeed, he would learn that nothing was ever his to keep just as everything was his to take, like a bucket with a hole. Or a grail without a bottom. He had shared the suffering of the dying people around him as his own, craved their salvation as if it was his own, and moved his feet with the same desire to live as that which rose in the choked air as countless cries. He had walked endlessly as if he had known nothing else until the end had finally found him and strangled his throat with glass and dust before his legs had given out and the rain had found his eyes. 

Then a man had found him. With Shirou’s hands in his own, the man had wept, moved by an unseen warmth that wrote life in the man’s eyes unlike the heat of the fire that only burned. Shirou had gazed between the needle-like droplets of rain and the fading of his mind to acknowledge the man’s face and words and identify them as “happiness.” 

Survivor’s guilt would eat him out with the tragedy that the countless cries and hands reaching out even in his sleep would not realise happiness once or ever again. Obligation had clamped down on young Shirou to find happiness where those he had outlived could not, and, led by his first understanding of the foreign idea, Shirou had sought to accomplish what Kiritsugu had: to save someone. Anyone. Even after being guided away from survivor’s guilt, Shirou found that he didn't need a reason to do the right thing. Kiritsugu, Fuji-nee, and others Shirou would meet would mislabel his intentions as a “dream,” and Shirou as a child would allow it, unaware that the proper definition of the resolve that kept a plug to his emptiness and was saving him just as much as Kiritsugu had was not simply a dream but a “purpose.” For Shirou, it was the only one he had. 

And the lancer’s spear was about to steal it from him. 

Unaware of amethyst light drawing patterns and circles around him, Shirou declared from the flame-touched depths of his heart a layered but honest truth. 

“I want to live!”

~

~

...Let it be said that the Holy Grail had a quirky sense of humour. 

~

~

“I command you not to kill me!”

“But that's what I'm here for!”

“I doubly command you!”

“Argggh!”

Shirou panted, cross. What had he done in his brief sixteen years alive to earn him the murderous intent of a Heroic Spirit? Kiritsugu had shared the rules of the war with Shirou before the man had passed, but nothing of _this!_

“Which land’s hero are you?” Shirou demanded. 

The red-clad bowman crossed his arms, apparently pacified by the forceful will of Shirou’s Command Spells. Regardless of their control, Archer’s brow twitched in open displeasure. 

“I see no point in sharing my true name with a bratty Master like you.” 

“Have I somehow wronged you in my past life!?” 

Archer’s brow twitched again, but Shirou could unexpectedly read through the micro-expression like a book. The signs read an affirmative. 

To be fair, Shirou remembered nothing of his life before the fire, but if this Heroic Spirit had been engaged in the Fourth Grail War, then Archer likely perceived no passage of time between being wronged by a young Shirou and being summoned by a less young Shirou. Archer’s immediate attempt on Shirou’s life was only logical. 

Now if only he could direct his killing intent at the Lancer also trying to kill Shirou!

“You!” Archer declared, startling Shirou and the curious Lancer. A black-bladed sword pointed Lancer’s way. “Who is your Master! Kirei? Bazett? I'm willing to trade mine!”

“Hey!”

“As amusing as a verbal exchange with you would be,” Lancer spun his spear to the ready with a bestial grin, “I'm looking for another type of exchange.” 

Archer lowered his sword to Shirou’s direction. “You're welcome to take a stab at him. Literally.” 

“You'll die with me!” Shirou exclaimed. 

“After two days,” Archer dismissed. “By then I would have already found another Master, if I wanted to.”

Lancer shrugged. “Fine by me.”

His red spear swung Shirou’s way before a gust of wind exploded between them, throwing Shirou through the slide doors of his house and into his kitchen while Lancer and Archer leapt back for distance. A woman in an armoured battle dress lifted her gale-shrouded weapon and stepped between them and Shirou. Rin pointed her finger at the two Servants before her who shared her bewilderment. 

“Two Servants…?” Rin muttered. “No matter. Saber, kill them!”

“Stop!” Shirou and Archer pleaded at the same time. 

“You're going to ruin my house!”

“Please be my Master, Tohsaka Rin!”

Saber and Rin faltered, floored. Shirou crawled out of his broken walls and doors. 

“You're a mage…” Rin observed Shirou, annoyed by the revelation, “yet your own Servant doesn't want you…” she acknowledged mirthfully. 

“This isn't the time to be laughing!” Shirou defended. 

“I agree!” Archer declared, and immediately regretted it. “T-Take me as your Servant!” 

Rin rose a brow. “Why would I want you? You're not a Saber.”

Well then! “Never mind. I don't want you either,” Archer huffed. Lancer’s spear zipped past him and missed his ear by a hair before it was blocked from stabbing Shirou by Saber’s blade yet again. The two Servants exchanged blows as Archer did his best to leave his Master open and broadcast it. 

Rin turned to her schoolmate. “I saved your life earlier, Emiya-kun, so now you owe me.”

Shirou sighed. “What do you want? Archer? You can take him.”

“Of course not!” Rin callously denied with a cheery smile. A vein twitched in Archer’s forehead, more than capable of hearing her. “I want you and your Servant, as my pawns, to expose the other contestants and maybe kill a few.”

“…That's a tall order.”

“A life is priceless, no?” Rin laughed. “Using you this much hardly dents the worth of what I've done for you.”

“If I attempt to blow up Saber and Lancer…” Archer muttered to himself, “and Shirou happens to be caught in the blast….”

“Deal,” Shirou flatly agreed. “So long as you protect me from Archer with your Saber.” 

“A little troublesome, but better than having no pawns,” Rin decided, and they shook hands. 

Thus began Rin's path to the Grail, revelations, and punching fake priests.

**Author's Note:**

> I regret many things.
> 
> Please review!


End file.
